


Warpaint and Scarred Hands

by flyingfanatic



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 16:14:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13127241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingfanatic/pseuds/flyingfanatic
Summary: An overview of Wayhaught in season one if Wynonna never returned, leaving Waverly to buckle under the mantle she thought she wanted.A one-shot inspired by @inimitabler's reasons not to kiss her series on tumblr.





	Warpaint and Scarred Hands

_In a world where Wynonna never came back, Waverly begins to buckle under the mantle she thought she wanted._

_The Revenants’ killing sprees go unchecked within the Triangle. Without the safety of the homestead or the defence of Peacemaker, Waverly lives in terror that someone may find out her last name isn’t Gibson._

_But there’s one person who still makes her hesitate over leaving. When Purgatory’s newest Sherrif’s deputy first flusters her at Shorty’s, Waverly can still feel the lightness of the thrill._

.

It’s whim, really, Nicole tells herself when she pulls her cruiser up a couple of blocks short of the station. Just happens that the station machine is broken. Not the flimsy excuse she’s been looking for for weeks, not in the slightest.

She gets out of her car and look up at the sign over Shorty’s. Deep breaths, Nicole tells herself, this isn’t the first time she’s made introductions to a pretty girl. Deep breaths.

She knew what she was hoping, but not entirely sure what she was expecting. Probably not Waverly beating the beer tap into submission. Nicole watches from the door frame for a moment, playing with the edge of the hat in her hand and hunting for something clever to say.

“I didn’t know Shorty’s did wet night competitions.” _Super clever. Dumbass._ “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Waverly grabs a towel to clean off the stale beer, a sight Nicole can’t seem to take her eyes off of. It really doesn't help Waverly’s hyper-alert tension to be looked at with such focus, not when Gus’ death leaves her one soft touch away from shattering.

“Just a bit jumpy. Had a - a crazy night last night.”

Waverly feels odd under Nicole’s open eyes and the promise in the sweep of her smile, somewhere between deer in the headlights and hopeful. The way Nicole looks at her is in no way threatening, but the sensation of being so completely seen rips away Waverly's carefully constructed defences. She feels vulnerable and overwhelmingly powerful all at the same time.

When Nicole leaves Waverly glances back and forth between the door and the card, attempting to suppress the grin spreading over her face and the strange bubble that’s trying to rise up her spine and dislodge the despair trying to settle there.

//

 _At Shorty and Champ’s funeral, Waverly collapses in Nicole’s arms. Nicole is practically a stranger to Waverly but she holds her, quietly, in a way Waverly’s never been held before. Nicole says all the things Waverly needs to hear, lets Waverly feel her pain,_ helps _her feel safe._

.

“Waverly,” Nicole calls out as soon as she sees her. “I am so sorry.”

Waverly’s eyes are damp and red from crying, her shoulders tensed inwards under the weight of her pain. “I can’t believe they’re gone.”

Nicole’s first reach for her hands is instinct, the desire to comfort. The second bubbles from a much deeper yearning for intimacy, one she quickly recovers by sliding that hand from Waverly’s arm to her hand.

“I - I can’t do this.”

At first Nicole thinks Waverly’s talking about their linked hands so she starts to pull back - only for Waverly to tighten her grip so fiercely Nicole couldn’t get away even if she wanted to. Waverly’s lips have formed a tight pressed line.

“Can we leave?”

Nicole nods, and uses her body to shield Waverly from concerned mourners and their questions on the way out the door. She takes Waverly to the only place she can think to take her: her own apartment.

Of all the spaces in Purgatory, this is one of the few where Waverly doesn't see the ghosts of everyone she’s lost, walking around in her memory. Maybe that’s what finally allows her to let go.

The tears come, unrestrained, and Nicole just holds her. Strong arms wrap around her shaking body and Nicole’s soft cheek lays gently on the top of her head, making Waverly feel safe in a way she hasn’t in a long time.

Nicole smells like vanilla dipped donuts over a faint but pleasant lingering soap, and eventually Waverly’s sobs fade and leave her with little else but a dizzying sense of those sweet smells.

She falls asleep in Nicole’s arms.

//

_The first time they kiss, Waverly doesn’t tell Nicole about the ocean and the airplane and the clams. She still tells Nicole about the fear. The fear of the coming storm, and the demons that haunt her. The fear of losing more people she loves._

.

Waverly comes rushing into the precinct as if demons were on her tail. Unfortunately for her, that’s often the case.

“Nedley out for dinner?”

“Oh, you mean happy hour at Shorty’s? Same time every day, kinda like clockwork.”

Waverly pushes behind the desk and into Nedley’s office where she starts pulling down all the blinds with an almost violent fixation.

“Hey, Wave…”

Nicole jogs in after her, just to have Waverly shove her unceremoniously aside so she can shut the door and then pounce. Really, there’s no other word for it. Nicole tries to start asking what the problem is but then Waverly’s lips on hers, her hands are clutching around Nicole’s neck and she’s half pushing, half bowling her towards the couch. After the first few desperate seconds Waverly seems to finally feel Nicole’s hands pushing her off.

“What happened to friends?” Nicole manages to pant out. Not that this wasn’t holy happy everything she’d been hoping for, but Waverly’s sure giving her whiplash.

“I am scared. All the time. The people I love keep dying and there’s these, these, men that keep coming after me and I’m trying but I don’t know how and it’s all going wrong…”

“Waverly, are you o - “ Nicole starts, shocked by the fear in Waverly’s voice.

“I’ve always stood up to the things that scared me. But, well -“ she swallows, derailed by suddenly realising her hand is resting on Nicole’s thigh “- it’s not so easy to be brazen when the thing that you want, th-that scares you to death, is, is sitting right in front of you.”

“I scare you?” Nicole echoes softly. Oh dear and fluffy lord, it all suddenly makes sense. It might be years and a whole world away when Nicole first found herself falling for another woman, but she doesn’t think she’ll ever forget that pure terror. Terror she just couldn’t not want with every fibre.

“Yes. Yes you do. Because - I don’t wanna be friends. When I think about what I wanna do most in this world… it’s you. Oh, god, that sounded so much more romantic in my head. Just uh, jump in, anytime, Nicole, cause I really really don’t know how to do this.”

“Oh sure you do.” Nicole’s voice burrs with the satisfaction of having so clearly got under Waverly’s skin.

Waverly wishes the other things that scared her could be so easily dealt with.

//

 _Nicole stands by her, staunch as ever. They try to fight, they try to love, but in this_ world _the scars Waverly bears from the deaths and the pain and the loneliness go far deeper. They patch each other up quickly, brusquely, while the wounds grow steadily more serious. Their stolen kisses come from a desire to feel alive, rather than from the joy of living._

.

“I’m exhausted.”

Waverly can’t look up at Nicole, can’t meet the open adoration in her eyes without breaking. Everything that’s happened to Nicole in the past few weeks - the bruises, the shootings, the kidnapping, her almost dying - has been because Waverly dragged her into her crazy world. That hardly seems the actions of someone who lo - who cares deeply for another person. It was selfish, pure and simple, because she wanted Nicole so badly.

She wants the hand that sweeps back her hair to lay gentle kisses of reassurance along her neck. She wants the whispered pet names. She wants to feel the shiver of Nicole’s hand down her back and to forget for a little while that she’s fighting alone.

More than anything she wants to turn to meet Nicole and lose the pain and loneliness in the press of her lips against Nicole’s.

Waverly clings with shaking hands to the back of Nicole’s neck and is met by the comforting pressure of Nicole’s body against her own. After every fight Waverly’s only certainty has become Nicole’s desire, unabated and strong, always so strong. She begins to strip the weight of responsibility from Waverly with their clothes. Smiling for the first time in days, Waverly begins to relax into Nicole’s arms, to respond with the same freeing urgency.

Until Nicole’s hands find the gunshot wound in her side.

“What is...let me look at that,” Nicole insists, and just like that the harsh world comes crashing back as if the roof had fallen in.

As Nicole cleans and dresses her wounds, Waverly lets her mind drift back off again until she can barely feel the touches on her skin.

//

_When Willa and Bobo open the gate and unleash Mikshun on the world, Waverly knows she has no time to learn how to love again. To protect the last person she has left to her, Waverly has to walk forth alone._

_She picks up Peacemaker from where Willa dropped it and puts on her warpaint._


End file.
